Sentinel readers have hit out at the courts after a B&M checkout worker was only ordered to pay £480 compensation to the firm - despite defrauding them out of £1,661.31.

They say Joanne Lockett should have been ordered to pay every penny of the £1,661.31 when she was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court last week.

The 46-year-old was working on the checkout at the Trent Vale store when she allowed friends to take goods for free, issued herself with credit notes or failed to scan items through the till for customers she liked.

But her offending came to an end after managers became suspicious and launched an investigation.

Joanne Lockett admitted fraud when she appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court

Following the case, Sentinel reader Kate Moore said: "She should have been ordered to pay the company back the full amount that disappeared."